Venezuelan acting president and presidential candidate Nicolas Maduro drives a bus during an electoral campaign EPA

Venezuela’s President-elect Nicolas Maduro has claimed that a centuries-old curse will strike anyone who fails to vote for him in next week’s election.

Mr Maduro, who took over as acting President when Hugo Chavez died of cancer last month, was pictured campaigning over the weekend driving a bus, a nod to his working class roots as a bus driver an union leader.

“Chavez sets the route, Maduro takes the wheel!” is the government slogan for its campaign. Voters go to the polls on Sunday.